Saturday, September 08, 2007

Follow the Sheep no wait the purple dinosaur

It seems that Robert Kuttner thinks that we owe post WWII prosperity to the bold leadership of Ferdinand Pecora. Odd name for a bold leader as Pecora means sheep in Italian (odd that an Italian was influential in the USA in the 30s too no?). Also Ferdinand was the bull who didn't want to fight.

Now the sheep role is to be filled by Barney Frank (not named after the smiling purple T- Rex with a tougher sounding voice).

Frank is tough enough, but more people will have to lose their houses before any regulation gets anywhere (and how about reversing the morally bankrupt bankruptcy reform ?).

1 comment:

I think that the subprime problem is part of a larger issue with credit innovation that extends to things such as credit cards, payday loans, and all the other ways in which credit has been made available to the "subprime."

Reformulating the bankruptcy laws is a way to shift some of the risk back to the loan originators systemically - it applies to any financial intrument a person has when they declare bankruptcy - and thus helps with the general problem. It's not a cure all, but it does suggest thinking about general as well as specific solutions involving regulation, laws, and other responses.